Workplace Bullying —

State of the Science, 2008

Anybody seeking an overall picture in 2008, of research and scholarship on workplace bullying, mobbing, harassment and abuse, need look no further than the Sixth International Conference on these topics, held in Montreal, Quebec, in the first week of June. It was an extraordinary event, drawing major researchers from about thirty countries.

Have a look at the conference website.

Study the presentation titles on the conference program.

Read the following independent reports on the conference by three members of the research team on workplace mobbing at the University of Waterloo:

"Language Barriers and Bullying," by Hannah Masterman, Research Assistant;

"Theoretical Dialects and Conflicting Perceptions," by Rachel Morrison, Research Assistant; and

"The Birth of a Learned Society," by Kenneth Westhues, Professor of Sociology.

Learn from retrospectives on the conference by leaders of the anti-bullying movement in the United States:

"The WBI Report," by Gary and Ruth Namie, Workplace Bullying Institute, Bellingham, WA (external link);

"Immersion in the Twisted World of Abuse at Work," by David Yamada, Professor of Law, Suffolk University, Boston.

Even if you don't read Spanish, you will enjoy the pictorial record of the conference posted by the delegation from Mexico on the rich website of Marina Parés, Acoso Moral.

Ponder the provocative assessment of current research in Kenneth Westhues's presentation at the conference, "Critiques of the Anti-Bullying Movement and Responses to Them."

Study the outcomes of Court Cases on Moral Harassment in Japan, as reported by the Association Against Workplace Moral Harassment, half a dozen of whose members took part in the Montreal conference.

(And if you attended the conference yourself and would like to add your own retrospective reflections to those published here, send them to us by email.)